The one for Gaara His heart now beats
by Socho's pen
Summary: After the chunin exams gaara is left to remember his fight with naruto. confused and angry he stumbls upon a bleeding girl of need of his assistance. Reluctantly he brings her to a hospital. However this girl. who is she? why does his heart beat so much?
1. Chapter 1

The girl who loved Gaara

(After the chunin exams)

Gaara was silently walking down a dirt path when the wind picked up. His hair blew slightly and he covered his arms for warmth.

' Love… Naruto gets his strength from love not hate. How can I be loved…?' He thought to himself in his snakelike voice. The character 'Love' on his forehead flashed in a small light that was coming from downwind. His eyes located where the light was coming from. A lantern was broken and on the ground near a small creek. The scent of a small amount of blood came to his nose.

'Blood has been spilled…'

Mainly out of curiosity he pursued the scent. Trees brushed past him as he walked towards the creek. The scent of blood grew stronger. He pulled back a branch of another tree just near the creek's edge and his eyes barely widened. A girl was bleeding on the ground. She had slashes across her torso and arms.

Gaara noticed she was a young teenager from his village.

'Dead? No, she's merely in a fixed state in which of having too much blood loss. Why should I care… she means nothing to me. I'll let her rot here…'

Suddenly a trembling arm reached up and grabbed Gaara's leg. He retaliated with his sand around her neck. Pain filled the girl's face once more.

"Please… help me!" she choked out. Then her eyes filled with fear.

'She must've recognized who I am. She fears me just like everyone else!' Anger filled Gaara's eyes.

"Be-Behind you!" She shouted and Gaara felt the presence of a person behind him. In a matter of seconds the attacker was crushed in his sand. Blood stained the ground and the girl struggled not to gag, with a hand over her mouth.

"What's going on here…?" Gaara hissed. The girl whimpered a little.

"T-that man attacked me when I was on my way home. He chased me through these woods. Then he threw a Chinese star at me and I fell unconscious for a while. He was just about to finish me off when you came through those trees. Ugh! **coughs up more blood.**" She explained and then slumped back down to the ground. Her face was buried in the wet moss under her.

Gaara scowled a little and started to walk away. However, something in his mind told him to help her. Anger swept over him once more.

"You! Girl, can you stand?" He snarled and glared at her. Her face was pale with all the blood she has lost.

"N-no. Its too painful."

"I asked if you could stand not if it hurt. Stand or I'll leave you here for the vultures to pick at your flesh."

Terrified she used a sturdy branch to force herself up. Pain tore up her chest and shoulder, yet she managed to stand.

"I can stand, but I can't walk. My leg muscles are damaged." She said in a painful voice.

Gaara scowled again. He went over to her and threw her over his shoulder. She coughed up a little more blood and she grew light-headed.

The girl gripped his shirt in her right fist and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you, Gaara." She said in a soft tone.

Gaara slightly widened his eyes. 'She knows my identity, but she isn't running away from me. That's only because she cannot run.' He thought to himself.

He took her to a village healer and left without a word. He didn't even ask her name in return.

Several weeks later…

In the clinic Jess (the girl from before) was healing pretty well. She was to be let out of the clinic the next day but for now she was instructed to rest.

"That boy, um from before…did he come by at all lately?" Jess asked a nurse that came by to change her bandages.

"No, he hasn't been back since that night." She replied. Jess was a little bummed about the news that day.

'I wonder if Gaara would've actually let me die out there. I mean… when we were kids I saw everyone run from him…like he was some sort of monster. Is he a monster? I never saw him as one. Maybe I'm out of my mind for wanting to find him and thank him once more.' Jess thought as she drifted off to sleep.

The next day Jess exited the hospital with only one bandage on her neck. The nurses waved to her as she left. Slowly she tied her sand Village headband around her waist.

'To think I was stupid enough not to defend myself from that man. Surely I could've taken him down. What was it that made me fear him over Gaara?' She wondered as she walked down the village streets. Without noticing she passed Gaara. He stared at her with that same cold look he always had. She perplexed him. Why did she not fear him? Everyone hated and feared him in this village or treated him like a weapon to be used. She's no saint, but just a foolish girl.

Jess wandered the village until she reached the academy. Calmly she looked at it with glassy eyes. Memories of her child life there flooded into her thoughts.

'He never spoke to me in class. I was just a shadow to him and everyone else. I have no talent or any uniqueness about me. I'm still that same shadow as before. He helped me out of pity, pure pity of my retched state. I'm such a fool.'

Jess turned away from the academy and started heading home. Down from the sky sand fell. Her sand goggles became clouded with the grains and she wiped them away along with a single tear. **What is my purpose in life?**

Slowly she opened the door to her family's home and rested her upper body on the wooded counter. Her stringy long black hair curled over her arm. Then she sensed something… the emptiness that lingered in her home. She felt a cold chill run down her spine as she lifted up her chin.

"Mom…? Father…?" She whispered in fear that her voice would fail her.

No answer to her call. Jess turned around and saw a limp figure on the floor of the living room.


	2. Chapter 2

Jess's blood ran cold as she numbly stepped forward. Her heart raced to a speed pf a hundred beats per minute.

Suddenly her legs unfroze and she broke into a fear filled dash to the corps.

"Mom!" Jess screamed and cried over the woman's body. Vigorously she dug her fingers into the skin of her mother and shook her.

"No, no, no, No, NO, NO! NO!" She hollered and beat her fists on her. Blood dripped off her wrists and fingertips. Jess began crying hysterically, for her father's body was nailed to the ceiling with hundreds of senbon.

"Heh, …heh heh heh hehe heh heh!" Came a cold laugh. In horror Jess stared up at her father's body. He had an evil smile spread across his thin lips. Slowly her father's body changed to a different person. It was a man in a black robe with pale skin. Skull tattoos inked up his arms.

"W-w-what------?" Jess stammered with a sick feeling in her stomach.

"The look on your face was priceless. Too bad I have to tear it to ribbons!" Another man sneered. He was ghost like as well. He was thin as paper and looked like it too with his long white robe with bulky chains dangling from the cuffs.

"How could I be so foolish to fall for a trick from you two?" Jess snarled and reached for the shuriken in her hip belt pocket. She then came to an unpleasant realization; there were no weapons in any of her pouches.

"Looking for these? " The white robed man laughed and twirled the shuriken on one finger.

" Now I'm really screwed." She thought as both me drew out their swords. In a blur of motion Jess did a front-hand-spring and elbowed the white robed man in the ribs. However, he showed no sign of pain so he grabbed hold of her left ankle and broke it with a slight movement of his wrist.

"Gah!" She screamed out as the pain surged throughout her leg. The white robed man restrained her as the other man approached her with deadly intentions. He put the blade to her neck and barely slit the skin, like a paper cut. Then he slammed his fist into her stomach so hard she couldn't puke, yet.

Suddenly sand burst into the room and held the attackers in a deadly grip.

"Wha-----?" They exclaimed in bewilderment.

This was Gaara's doing. Jess was slumped over against the wall, still conscious. Hatred filled his face as he crushed the men with his sand. However, no blood was spilled, strangely.

Gaara then turned to Jess.

'Why do I keep running into this girl?' he thought angrily. He noticed her headband and the bandage on her neck, which was over-flowing with blood now.

"You're really aggravating me…" Gaara growled. Jess's eyes stirred as she heard his voice.

"…Its not like I wanted this… you saving me and all." She whispered. Her headband fell over her eyes now.

Gaara let his sand slowly lift Jess up. However, he pinned her to the wall with intense force. Pain filled her face as he got in hers.

"I want answers. What have you done to be attacked so often, or is it just a coincidence? " He hissed. Jess gave up and decided to spill the beans.

"… Simply my father stole merchandise from their organization awhile back. Ole' pops actually turned up missing not to long ago. They want their merchandise back and so they keep tormenting me for answers. Now, what're _you_ doing here anyways Gaara?" she said bitterly and got back in his face without fear. He glared at her then spoke.

"I saw two men sneak into a home window and so I decided to investigate. After all I am to be kasekage soon."

"Let me down now. I'm in pain." Jess said with her head hung. He let her loose and the sand slid back into his gourd. Jess fixed her headband and steadied her broken ankle with a piece of cloth off her shirt.


	3. Chapter 3

Gaara continued to scowl. 'This is a waste of time. He didn't want to be here... so why the hell was he?!'

Jess ripped the bandage from her neck and blood plopped to the floor. Her eyes were hazed with a back shroud.

Gaara took this as his cue to leave, and so he stepped out of the building without even glancing back at her.

Jess continued to stare at the pool of blood now at her feet. She shudders at the fact that once again she had to be protected.

Like she was a child. Her nails dug into her fleshy palm as she scowled as well.

Suddenly Gaara stopped walking and held his stance.' Footsteps?" The sound of sandals scuffing across the dirt road echoed in Gaara's

ears. Then Gaara let out a gasp as two arms locked around his chest and he fell over backwards.

The sound of a girlish whine could be heard from under him. To his realization the two, jess and Gaara, had fell into an inescapable kiss.

Gaara yelped in shock of the tender feeling his own lips now had. Jess just reacted in a way she couldn't understand.

She then pulled away from him and betrayed her shocked emotions. They both flushed maroon and neither could speak.

"What I wanted t-to say was... thank you for saving me!" Jess shouted the last bit of her sentence quickly as if those words burned in her

throat like acid. She just got an empty stare from the bewildered Gaara. He then stood up and let the sand form around him so only his face was exposed. He was so confused. He'd never been in contact with another person like that before.

He hadn't been cut on the lips but why did his lips buzz like so? Jess didn't turn away from him though.

"W-hat? Am I a bad kisser?" She asked in a proud voice. She actually found herself full of her own ego, there's no way she was a bad kisser, even though... that was her first one.

Gaara was about to say something when an all too familiar orange ninja appeared from no-where.

"HI JESS!" Exclaimed hyper-active Uzimaki Naruto. Jess flinched as he grinned at her.

"Why are you here Naruto? Aren't you supposed to be in your village or something?" Jess asked. Naruto frowned a little.

"No... Well yes but you see I really pissed Tsunade off and now she has held a public stoning and people threw rocks at me. So I got outta there. So now I'm here." He said between a happy smile. There was silence.

Naruto turned around and all there was was sand caught in the wind. Gaara was gone.

"Where did---?" jess wondered aloud as she gazed off into the horizon. She gently touched her lips and formed his image into her mind. Meanwhile Naruto was shouting her name as she got lot into the swamp of her thoughts.

The next day Jess got screamed at by a hung-over market witch, so she called the old hag. She dropped a hold cardboard box of apples, so now her punishment was to sweep the dark ally way nearby.

Alex: seriously, who says, 'go clean the ally" unless they want something bad to happen to them. Ha-ha continue.

Jess swept the ally obediently until a rat scurried over her foot. In which she screamed and made an effort to stab the beastly rodent with her broom, end part down. As she was screaming like an idiot Naruto saw his chance to catch her off guard. He threw a kunai at her in hopes she'd dodge it.

However, Jess hadn't moved and now the kunai was lodged in her right shoulder and she was bleeding badly. She hadn't dodged it and Naruto had accidentally/ purposely hurt her.

"Jess! Jess!" Naruto hollered after her as she slumped to the ground. Naruto picked up her limp body and held up her head. Slowly he went to look into her eyes. When he did the whole body of jess turned into melted wax and laughter could be heard from behind the bewildered Naruto.

"Hah! At least I learned one thing when I was a ninja." Jess laughed.


End file.
